Liu Shaoqi

In this Chinese name, the family name is Liu .

• He Baozhen

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  ​

  (m. 1923;died 1934)​
• Xie Fei

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  (m. 1935;div. 1940)​
• Wang Qian

  ​

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  (m. 1942;div. 1943)​
• Wang Guangmei

  ​

  (m. 1948⁠–⁠1969)​

Liu Shaoqi
刘少奇
2nd Chairman of the People's Republic of China
In office 27 April 1959 –31 October 1968
Children	9 (including Liu Yunbin and Liu Yuan)

In the past, the infrastructure battlefront was too long. There were too many projects. Demands were too high and rushed. Designs were done badly, and projects were hurriedly begun ... We only paid attention to increasing output and ignored quality. We set targets too highly. We must always remember these painful learning experiences.

Conflict with Mao

Liu Shaoqi and Indira Gandhi, 1954

Liu was publicly acknowledged as Mao's chosen successor in 1961; however, by 1962 his opposition to Mao's policies had led Mao to mistrust him. Liu's advocacy for pragmatic economic reforms and his criticism of the Great Leap Forward's failures highlighted the ideological rift between him and Mao. ^[15] After Mao succeeded in restoring his prestige during the 1960s, ^[16] Liu's eventual downfall became "inevitable". Liu's position as the second-most powerful leader of the CCP contributed to Mao's rivalry with him at least as much as Liu's political beliefs or factional allegiances in the 1960s, ^[15] especially during and after the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference, indicating that Liu's later persecution was the result of a power struggle that went beyond the goals and well-being of either China or the Party.

Liu was among the senior officials who in 1964 were initially reluctant to support Mao's proposed Third Front campaign to develop basic industry and national defense industry in China's interior to address the risk of invasion by the United States or the Soviet Union. ^{[14] : 41} In an effort to stall, Liu proposed additional surveys and planning. ^{[14] : 40} Academic Covell F. Meyskens writes that Liu and the high-ranking colleagues who agreed with him did not want to engage in another rapid industrialization campaign so soon after the failure of the Great Leap Forward and that instead they sought to continue the gradual approach of developing areas and increasing consumption. ^{[14] : 41} When fears of American invasion increased after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Liu and his colleagues changed their views and began fully supporting the Third Front construction. ^{[14] : 7}

Liu Shaoqi in June 1966, the first year of the Cultural Revolution

By 1966, few senior leaders in China questioned the need for a widespread reform to combat the growing problems of corruption and bureaucratization within the Party and the government. With the goal of reforming the government to be more efficient and true to the Communist ideal, Liu himself chaired the enlarged Politburo meeting that officially began the Cultural Revolution. However, Liu and his political allies quickly lost control of the Cultural Revolution soon after it was called, when Mao used the movement to progressively monopolize political power and to destroy his perceived enemies. ^[17]

Whatever its other causes, the Cultural Revolution, declared in 1966, was overtly pro-Maoist, and gave Mao the power and influence to purge the Party of his political enemies at the highest levels of government. Along with closing China's schools and universities, and Mao's exhortations to young Chinese to randomly destroy old buildings, temples, and art, and to attack their teachers, school administrators, party leaders, and parents, ^[18] the Cultural Revolution also increased Mao's prestige so much that entire villages adopted the practice of offering prayers to Mao before every meal. ^[19]

In both national politics and Chinese popular culture, Mao established himself as a demigod accountable to no one, purging any that he suspected of opposing him ^[20] and directing the masses and Red Guards "to destroy virtually all state and party institutions". ^[17] After the Cultural Revolution was announced, most of the most senior members of the CCP who had voiced any hesitation in following Mao's direction, including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, were removed from their posts almost immediately and, with their families, subjected to mass criticism and humiliation. ^[18] Liu and Deng, along with many others, were denounced as "capitalist roaders". ^[21] Liu was labeled as the "commander of China's bourgeoisie headquarters", China's foremost "capitalist-roader", "the biggest capitalist roader in the Party", and a traitor to the revolution; ^[22] he was displaced as Vice Chairman of the CCP by Lin Biao in July 1966.

By 1967, Liu and his wife Wang Guangmei were placed under house arrest in Beijing. ^[23] Liu's major economic positions were attacked, including his "three freedoms and one guarantee" (which promoted private land plots, free markets, independent accounting for small enterprises, and household output quotas) and "four freedoms" (which permitted individuals in the countryside to lease land, lend money, hire wage laborers, and engage in trade). ^[24] Liu was removed from all his positions and expelled from the Party in October 1968. After his arrest, Liu disappeared from public view.

Vilification, death and rehabilitation

Liu Shaoqi being subjected to public humiliation at a rally during the Cultural Revolution

At the Ninth Party Congress, Liu was denounced as a traitor and an enemy agent. Zhou Enlai read the Party verdict that Liu was "a criminal traitor, enemy agent and scab in the service of the imperialists, modern revisionists and the Kuomintang reactionaries". Liu's conditions did not improve after he was denounced in the Congress, and he died soon afterward. ^{[25] [26]}

In a memoir written by Liu's principal physician, he disputed the alleged medical maltreatment of Liu during his last days. According to Dr. Gu Qihua, there was a dedicated medical team in charge of treating Liu's illness; between July 1968 and October 1969, Liu had seven total occurrences of pneumonia due to his deteriorating immune system, and there had been a total of 40 group consultations by top medical professionals regarding the treatment of this disease. Liu was closely monitored on a daily basis by a medical team, and they made the best effort given the adverse circumstances. He died in prison from complications due to diabetes at 6:45 a.m. on 12 November 1969 under a pseudonym in Kaifeng, and was cremated the next day. ^{[27] [28] [23]}

In February 1980, two years after Deng Xiaoping came to power, the Fifth Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the "Resolution on the Rehabilitation of Comrade Liu Shaoqi". The resolution fully rehabilitated Liu, declaring his ouster to be unjust and removing the labels of "renegade, traitor and scab" that had been attached to him at the time of his death. ^[21] It also declared him to be "a great Marxist and proletarian revolutionary" and recognized him as one of the principal leaders of the Party. Lin Biao was blamed for "concocting false evidence" against Liu, and for working with the Gang of Four to subject him to "political frame-up and physical persecution". In 1980, Liu was posthumously rehabilitated by the CCP under Deng Xiaoping. This rehabilitation included a formal apology from the government, acknowledging that Liu had been wrongly persecuted and that his contributions to the Chinese Revolution and the early development of the People's Republic of China were significant and positive. ^[29] Following the conclusion of the rehabilitation ceremony, Liu's ashes were scattered off the coast of the city of Qingdao in accordance to wishes he made prior to his death. ^[30]

On 23 November 2018, the CCP's general secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Liu Shaoqi. ^[31]

Liu Shaoqi's legacy remains controversial in China. While his role in the Chinese Revolution and early economic reforms is acknowledged, his persecution during the Cultural Revolution and the subsequent suffering highlight the complexities of his political career. Liu's pragmatic approach to economic policy is now seen as a precursor to the reforms that transformed China in the late 20th century. ^[32]

Personal life

Liu with his wife Wang Guangmei, 1960s

Liu married five times, including to He Baozhen (何宝珍) and Wang Guangmei (王光美). ^[33] His third wife, Xie Fei (谢飞), came from Wenchang, Hainan and was one of the few women on the 1934 Long March. ^[34] His wife at the time of his death in 1969, Wang Guangmei, was thrown into prison by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution; she was subjected to harsh conditions in solitary confinement for more than a decade. ^[35]

His son Liu Yunbin (Chinese: 刘允斌; pinyin: Liú Yǔnbīn) was a prominent physicist who was also singled out for abuse during the Cultural Revolution. He committed suicide in 1967 by lying on the tracks before an oncoming train. Liu Yunbin was posthumously rehabilitated and his reputation restored in 1978.

Works

• Liu Shaoqi (1984). Selected Works of Liu Shaoqi. Vol. I (1st ed.). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN   0-8351-1180-6. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
• — (1991). Selected Works of Liu Shaoqi. Vol. II (1st ed.). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN   0-8351-2452-5. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 7 May 2020.

See also

• China portal
• Biography portal

• History of the People's Republic of China
• Liu Shaoqi's Former Residence

References

Citations

1. Dittmer, Lowell, Liu Shao-ch’i and the Chinese Cultural Revolution: The Politics of Mass Criticism, University of California Press (Berkeley), 1974, p. 27
2. Snow, Edgar, Red Star Over China, Random House (New York), 1938. Citation is from the Grove Press 1973 edition, pp. 482–484
3. Hammond, Ken (2023). China's Revolution and the Quest for a Socialist Future. New York, NY: 1804 Books. ISBN   9781736850084.
4. Dittmer, p. 14
5. Chen, Jerome. Mao and the Chinese Revolution, (London), 1965, p. 148
6. Dittmer, p. 15
7. Snow, pp. 482–484
8. Gao Hua, How the Red Sun Rose: The Origins and Development of the Yan'an Rectification Movement, 1930–1945, Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. 2018
9. Dittmer 1974, p. 17 citing Tetsuya Kataoka, Resistance and Revolution in China: The Communists and the Second United Front, 1974 pre-publication.
10. MacFarquhar, Roderick (1973). "Problems of Liberalization and the Succession at the Eighth Party Congress". The China Quarterly (56): 617–646. doi:10.1017/S0305741000019524. ISSN   0305-7410. JSTOR   652160.
11. Dittmer 1974, p. 206
12. Tsang, Steve; Cheung, Olivia (2024). The Political Thought of Xi Jinping. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780197689363.
13. Dikötter, Frank. Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62. Walker & Company, 2010.
14. Meyskens, Covell F. (2020). Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-108-78478-8. OCLC   1145096137.
15. Teiwes, Frederick C., and Warren Sun. The Tragedy of Lin Biao: Riding the Tiger during the Cultural Revolution, 1966-1971. University of Hawaii Press, 1996.
16. Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China , New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 1999. ISBN   0-393-97351-4 p. 566.
17. Qiu Jin, The Culture of Power: the Lin Biao Incident in the Cultural Revolution, Stanford University Press: Stanford, California. 1999, p. 45
18. Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China, New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 1999. ISBN   0-393-97351-4 p. 575.
19. Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China, New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 1999. ISBN   0-393-97351-4 p. 584
20. Barnouin, Barbara and Yu Changgen. Zhou Enlai: A Political Life. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. ISBN   962-996-280-2 p. 4
21. Dittmer, Lowell (1981). "Death and Transfiguration: Liu Shaoqi's Rehabilitation and Contemporary Chinese Politics". The Journal of Asian Studies. 40 (3): 455–479. doi:10.2307/2054551. ISSN   0021-9118. JSTOR   2054551.
22. "Liu Shaoqi (1898-1969)". Chinese University of Hong Kong . Archived from the original on 4 June 2018.
23. Mathews, Jay (4 March 1980). "5 Children of Liu Shaoqi Detail Years in Disfavor". Washington Post. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
24. Coderre, Laurence (2021). Newborn socialist things : materiality in Maoist China. Durham [N.C.]: Duke University Press. p. 68. ISBN   978-1478014300.
25. Chung, Jang. White Swans: Three Daughters of China. Touchstone: New York. 2003. p. 391. ISBN   0-7432-4698-5.
26. Glover, Jonathan (1999). Humanity : A Moral History of the Twentieth Century . London: J. Cape. p.  289. ISBN   0-300-08700-4.
27. 回忆抢救刘少奇, 炎黄春秋 [Liu Shaoqi's Emergency Treatment] (in Chinese (China)). Sina.com History. 12 November 2013.
28. Alexander V. Pantsov . Mao: The Real Story . Simon & Schuster 2013. p. 519. ISBN   1451654480.
29. Vogel, Ezra F. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. Harvard University Press, 2011.
30. "Rehabilitation of Liu Shaoqi (Feb. 1980)". China Internet Information Center . 22 June 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
31. "Xi's speech commemorating 120th anniversary of Liu Shaoqi's birth published". People's Daily. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
32. Lo Porto-Lefébure, Alessia (6 March 2009). "NAUGHTON (Barry) – The Chinese Economy. Transitions and Growth . – Cambridge (Mass.), The MIT Press, 2007. 528 p." Revue française de science politique. 59 (1): IV. doi:10.3917/rfsp.591.0134d. ISSN   0035-2950.
33. 前国家主席刘少奇夫人王光美访谈录 (in Chinese (China)). Sina.com . Retrieved 29 January 2011.
34. 长征时与刘少奇结伉俪，琼籍女红军传奇人生 (in Chinese (China)). Retrieved 29 January 2011.
35. Lieberthal, Kenneth. Governing China: From Revolution to Reform. W.W. Norton: New York, 1995.^{[ ISBN missing ]}

Sources

• "Fifth Plenary Session of 11th C.C.P. Central Committee", Beijing Review, No. 10 (10 March 1980), pp. 3–10, which describes the official rehabilitation measures.

External links

• The Liu Shaoqi Reference Archive
• The Theory of Transition in China: The Thought of Liu Shaoqi by Raymond Yeap

Liu Shaoqi
Simplified Chinese	刘 少 奇
Traditional Chinese	劉少奇
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Liú Shàoqí Gwoyeu Romatzyh Liou Shawchyi Wade–Giles Liu2 Shao4-ch'i2 IPA [ljǒʊ ʂâʊtɕʰǐ] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Lau4 Siu2-kei4

Assembly seats
New title	Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress 1954–1959	Succeeded by Zhu De
Political offices
Preceded by Mao Zedong	Chairman of the People's Republic of China 1959–1968	Succeeded by Dong Biwu and Soong Ching-ling (acting)
Party political offices
Preceded by Mao Zedong	President of the CCP Central Party School 1947–1953	Succeeded by Kai Feng
New title	Vice Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Served alongside: Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun, Lin Biao 1956–1966	Succeeded by Lin Biao